Martin Heinrich

U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., on Wednesday introduced a bill he says will strengthen labor standards for energy projects that receive federal financial assistance.

The Good Energy Jobs Act would require energy projects that receive assistance from the U.S. Department of Energy to meet specified labor and community benefits standards. Under the bill, DOE-backed projects would have to pay workers prevailing wages and offer apprenticeships.

It would also require energy companies to attach community benefits plans to their projects — initiatives such as workforce training, union partnerships and local hiring — and would prohibit them from offshoring manufacturing. That would ensure “a significant portion of federal energy funding benefits small or disadvantaged communities,” according to a fact sheet.

Energy projects often voluntarily offer benefits packages, including those that receive DOE money.

The Southline Transmission project, a 175-mile transmission line from Hidalgo County to Pima County in Arizona, received up to $477 million in financing from DOE’s Transmission Facilitation Program. The project has offered to invest nearly $4 million directly into host communities.

Heinrich, the ranking member of the Senate’s Energy and Natural Resources Committee, often invokes the story of his father, who was an International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers lineman.

“His union job gave him the ability to provide for our family, buy a home, and give my siblings and me opportunities that neither of my parents had growing up,” Heinrich said in a statement. “That’s what a good energy job can do: it doesn’t just power our homes and our economy — it can power the American dream.”

Kenneth Cooper, current president of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, was quoted in Heinrich’s news release announcing the legislation, saying the bill “builds on the legacy” started under former President Joe Biden’s Investing in America agenda, which required DOE investments to include enforceable labor standards such as project labor agreements and prevailing wages.

“These standards ensure that workers who are building our nation’s energy infrastructure can support their families and communities,” Cooper said.

U.S. Reps. Paul Tonko of New York and Nikki Budzinski of Illinois, both Democrats, sponsored the companion legislation in the House. But Republicans control Congress.

A Heinrich spokesperson said the legislation has no Republican co-sponsors, “though our team will continue working with colleagues across the aisle to build support.”